Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have noted the comment about wanting to see change to the policy and guidelines. At the present time, we do have a policy with associated guidelines so at this point I'd not want to try to second guess what position, what individual, what training someone might have. They may have training that is beyond the position that they are in or different from the position they are in. So I would just want to emphasize, again, that every effort is always made to ensure that any affected employee whose position might be eliminated is not lost from the public...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As of March 31st of 2024, there are 492 vacancies across the GNWT. A vacancy obviously can come with a number of different meanings. It may mean that it may be actively being recruited for at any particular point in time. In Fort Smith specifically, Mr. Speaker, there are 647 GNWT positions of which, again, as of the 31st of March, 114 were vacant, and there were 34 positions in total proposed for elimination in the 2024-2025 Main Estimates. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to update you on new initiatives being introduced over the coming months to enhance public safety for residents and road users in the territory. We can all agree that when it comes to safety, there is a lot on the line. There are almost 27,000 licensed drivers registered in the Northwest Territories. The latest territorial traffic collisions report shows nearly 450 vehicle collisions in one year with 18.5 percent resulting in injury, and a whopping 31 percent involving impaired driving. BIn July 2023, the RCMP conducted a roadside survey in Yellowknife and found that...

No, thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents: Inter-Activity Transfers Exceeding $250,000 (April 1st to March 31st, 2024); and, Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 170-20(1): Regulation of E-Scooters. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question. It's actually not new to me; it certainly has come up over the course of some years that I've been doing the budget dialogues. And I'd like to take it away, see if we can continue to work on this a bit. Some of the challenges that the programming that we have does come with costs, and it comes with costs that we pay for our employees. There's also some concerns I've run into around at what point would you be turning someone who's not an employee to be starting to look like an employee, particularly in the case of workers who are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, any employee who is facing being affected by in sort of form of reduction anywhere in the GNWT, anywhere in the Northwest Territories is subject to a process. It is one where there is a notification process and there is, indeed, a staff retention policy and staff retention guidelines. Every effort is made to ensure that anyone in an affected position is not lost as a public servant and so, indeed, that process can take several months, if not quite some time, to ensure that they can best find themselves back in a new position within the public service...

Yes, Mr. Speaker.

(audio).

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this is the kind of an infrastructure investment that is unlikely to find a federal funding partner. As such, it would be entirely borne by the Government of the Northwest Territories, which would therefore take away from the funding that we put towards health care centres, long-term care, and education, which are also fully funded by the Government of the Northwest Territories. So at this point, no, there is not a current plan to investigate spending possibly upwards of a $100 million on a standalone facility in Yellowknife for this purpose. Thank you.

Sorry, Mr. Chair. I don't have great ears in this room. So that's the post-construction report, and that is going to be part of the submission that is made for the 2024-2025 GRA that the Public Utilities Board has requested. I believe that is due by the end of December.